Letters to the editor, 9/26

Tax bill would make April 15 just another day

Politicians in Washington who refuse to give up their power by using our 100-year-old income tax system are a problem. They line their pockets for tax favors and keep us under control through fear of the Internal Revenue Service. Since the 1986 flattening of the tax code, 12,000 amendments have been added. It has cost us $250-400 billion to comply and April 15 is a day we dread.

Part of Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto platform says, "We need a heavy progressive or graduated income tax" to defeat capitalism. Americans were duped into passing the 16th Amendment (income tax) to become law in 1913. It's an evil system and not what the Founding Fathers wanted.

Americans For Fair Taxation have put the Fairtax Bill H.R. 25 and S.13 before Congress and we need your help to pass it. It's a one-time sales tax on all first-time sales and services. It eliminates federal income taxes so prices stay near the same. You buy your goods, you pay the tax. No more IRS - April 15 is just another day. The government won't know what you make or where you work. There's a prebate in the bill that states no citizen will pay any federal taxes on essentials up to a level determined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services based only on how many dependents you have.

Go to www.Fairtax.org for more information and tell your representatives to support the Fairtax, or explain why they don't.

William T. Reilly

member, Americans For Fair Taxation

Hyde Park

Congressmen work for gun lobbyists, not voters

On Sunday, Sept. 22, President Barack Obama spoke of another mass murder gun tragedy in America ("Obama says fight for gun laws 'ought to obsess us' "). When will it stop? Not as long as semi-automatic assault rifles and large magazines are legal. The AR-15 is the weapon of choice of this nation's mass murders. These weapons are not used to stop crimes, handguns are. So why are they still legal to own, even though many Americans want them banned?

It's simple, our government officials are elected by the people, but our elected officials - including congressmen - are no longer working for, or are responsible to, the people. They work for, and are responsible to, the powerful and rich special-interest groups and lobbyists that fund their elections. That's who they care about, that's whose interests they cater to and pass laws for. Our democracy has been hijacked by these powerful forces.

The pendulum of time is swinging back to a time when the rich and powerful rule. No longer do we care about shared social values of the rising, working and middle classes, supported by honest and strong unions, public education and low-cost higher education. Today, everyone is trying to make money off all our institutions and policies.

We have gotten used to ideology and politics dividing the American Congress to a virtual standoff of inaction, and no one really cares.

Steven Roth

Pawling

Decades-old cross vandalized before 9/11

The morning of Sept. 11, my nephew took the one-mile hike to check on a valley icon - the cross on the top of Honness Mountain in southern Dutchess County. He was making sure the cross was ready to be illuminated for 9/11. This cross has been lit for holidays, family deaths, and fallen heroes since it was first erected in the 1940s. We intended to light it for the night of 9/11 in remembrance of the fallen.

Upon his arrival at the summit, he discovered a malicious act, which we suspect is a hate crime. The cross was systematically destroyed. It was beyond repair for the night of 9/11. We believe this hate crime was done in response to our observance of 9/11.

Our family respects all religions, nationalities, and political beliefs. We thought since that is what this country was built on, others would respect ours.

The cross will be rebuilt. We only hope that the people who did this can learn that America is a nation of peace, hope and happiness.

Leonard Brooks

Fishkill

Violent society must reorder its priorities

I would like to concur with the letter written by Lola Schurman ("Killings are wrong; all lives are valuable" Sept. 16). It seems that on a daily basis, one can see or read about the continuing violence and loss of life in our society. As a parent, grandparent, and elementary school teacher I have seen a disintegration of family structure, an overexposure to technology that is often addictive, violent, or inappropriate, enslavement to a hurried pace of life, and a decline in church attendance.

If we, as a society, do not reorder our priorities, I fear that we will continue to see more of the same gloom and doom news. It is disheartening to see what American society has become and how we are being perceived by others. Hopefully we can turn things around before it is too late.

Lynn Maloney

Pawling

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Letters to the editor, 9/26

Politicians in Washington who refuse to give up their power by using our 100-year-old income tax system are a problem. They line their pockets for tax favors and keep us under control through fear of